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Why Israel is winner in the online world

October 25 2011, 1:01am, The Times

Eyal Sanoff, left, is a close friend and associate of Teddy Sagi, right

Israel’s involvement in the gaming industry dates back to the early 1990s, when companies in the country took advantage of a lack of legislation and a supply of local computer programmers to launch Israel into the online gambling world.

Although online gambling has since become illegal through a series of laws passed in 2007, loopholes in the legislation have allowed Israeli entrepreneurs to continue cashing in on the global market.

Israel has since become a major supplier of software to the online gambling sector, with some estimates claiming that it has a 15 per cent share in the global market.

At the helm of the boom is the Israeli businessman Teddy Sagi, 39, whose net worth is valued at $1.2 billion (£751 million) by Forbes.